Dr. Jonathan Short; jshort@yorku.ca

Times and locations: This course is scheduled for in-person classes once per week. The meeting time and location is as follows: Monday 2:30-5:30pm HNE 030.

Office hours: Office Hours will be held using Zoom by appointment and in person each week. I will post the invitation link on Eclass for these appointments. Physical office and time is Wednesdays 5:30-6:30pm SR 401.

This course provides students with a grounding in reading comprehension, critical thinking, argumentative skills, and applied political theory to social issues we encounter in everyday life. The course focuses on skills-development more than abstract knowledge. Students who view the lectures, participate as fully as possible in the course, and keep up with their assignments, will experience an increase in their reading comprehension and an ability to think critically, to the end of improving their sensitivity to reasoned discussion. This course seeks to present an “intellectual antidote” to some of the deeply anti-critical and anti-intellectual attitudes prevalent in contemporary North American culture.

The course will be broken down into roughly two parts. The first part will focus on the basics and mechanics of argumentation, identifying logical fallacies, reading comprehension, and the use of generalization and inference. With these skills as a background, the second half of the course will go on to think specifically about different approaches we find in political and social life to different social issues. Students will be asked to look at a social issue from various perspectives to appreciate both the complexity of the issues and the different approaches to them.

Technical requirements for taking the course:

While this course is an in-person course, it will make extensive use of the E-class platform. Accordingly, you will need access to a computer or other device with internet access.

To determine Internet connection and speed, there are online tests, such as Speedtest, that can be run.]

First Term: Critical Thinking: Argument and Argumentation. 2014. 2nd Edition. Authors: Jean Saindon and Peter John Krek. ISBN: 978-0-17-666100-7. Publisher: Nelson Education. This will likely be a digital access text through the online provider Top Hat (this will be confirmed within the first few classes starting)

Second Term: A selection of chapters from Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? 2009. Author: Michael J. Sandel. ISBN: 978-374-53250-5. Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux: New York will be made available on the E-class website.

1. Lecture Participation Assignment (LPA) Exercises: Due as indicated on E-class or in person throughout the course: Weight: 20%
2. Argument Quiz:   Weight: 15%, October 16
3. Fallacies & Non-Deductive Arguments Test: Weight: 20%, December 4
4. Passage Analysis Assignment: Weight: 25%, February 5
5. Take-Home Test Weight 20%, April 1

While the lectures of this course will be held in-person, some of its components, including the submission of assignments for participation, and some test-taking, will happen on the course’s Eclass site.

Because this is a skills-based course, the material will be made available in a sequential “week-by-week” format. That means you will not be able to jump around in the material but must learn it in a particular order. The course lecture slides and other material will be posted the week we cover material and you will not have access to most material in advance of covering it in the course.

This course is skills-based, meaning that it is less focussed on what you know than on how you know. In this course you will expand your ability to think critically, to formulate a cogent, logical, and coherent argument, and to spot the flaws in the arguments and claims of others. It will prepare you to live in our media-saturated society with a sceptical and critical mind. You will also learn to express your ideas in writing in a logically consistent form. Finally, the course will teach you some of the key ideas that are often appealed to to justify many social practices, including the distribution of power and goods in our society. The point of learning about these ideas is to enhance your ability to think critically about the justification for these beliefs and whether they deserve our support.

Additional Course Information:

Grading: The grading scheme for the course conforms to the 9-point grading system used in undergraduate programs at York (e.g., A+ = 9, A = 8, B+ - 7, C+ = 5, etc.).  Assignments and tests* will bear either a letter grade designation or a corresponding number grade (e.g.  A+ = 90 to 100, A = 80 to 90, B+ = 75 to 79, etc.)

(For a full description of York grading system see the York University Undergraduate Calendar - http://calendars.registrar.yorku.ca/2010-2011/academic/index.htm

Students may take a limited number of courses for degree credit on an ungraded (pass/fail) basis. For full information on this option see Alternative Grading Option in the LA&PS section of the Undergraduate Calendar.

Assignment Submission: Proper academic performance depends on students doing their work not only well, but on time.  Accordingly, assignments for this course must be received on the due date specified for the assignment.  Assignments are to be handed in on the E-class site for this course in the drop-boxes indicated.

Please Note that it is not possible to submit the LPA assignments late. They are designed to reflect your level of participation in the course and must be completed on a weekly basis (i.e. you have from the day the lecture occurs until the next lecture day to complete them.) If you do not keep up with them you cannot hand them in later; please don’t ask me to extend the deadline since this will not be done.

Lateness Penalty: Assignments received later than the due date will be penalized 2% per day that the assignment is late. Exceptions to the lateness penalty for valid reasons such as illness, compassionate grounds, etc., may be accepted by the Course Instructor but will require supporting documentation (e.g., a doctor’s letter). Students who have recognized accommodation from the Accessible Learning Centre at York that permits it will be given extra time to complete tests and assignments as appropriate.

Missed Tests: Students with a documented reason for missing a course test, such as illness, compassionate grounds, etc., which is confirmed by supporting documentation (e.g., doctor’s letter) may request accommodation from the Course Instructor. Students will be permitted to write a new timed test or upload the assignment to Eclass (Turn-it-In) after the official cut-off date for the test or assignment. Further extensions or accommodation will require students to submit a formal petition to the Faculty.

Recording Policy: The content of this course is delivered through live lectures which remain the intellectual property (IP) of the Course Instructor. If you wish to record these lectures for your own personal use, you must secure permission from the instructor. I will give permission to record to students who have accommodation from the Accessible Learning Centre when this is part of their accommodation; if this is the case, please present me with your accommodation documentation.

Any recording of lectures for commercial purposes or to share with others is a violation of York’s Academic Honesty Guidelines as well as a violation of the Instructor’s legal IP rights and is prohibited. It is also prohibited to upload any course materials to online study sites, commercial or otherwise, such as Course Hero. Any violators will be subject to academic sanction as appropriate.